Clarkson vs. Government

Jeremy Clarkson's recent verbal attack on the leader of our government, Gordon Brown, was amusing.

Now he did call Gordon Brown a 'one-eyed Scottish idiot', (YouTube video) and each of those statements taken individually is pure Clarkson territory and — in his typical context — rather funny. However, Jeremy's latest soundbite has been seen as being a bit above and beyond the grounds of taste and decency.

I did notice one thing, though, and it was this: Clarkson apologised for " [making] a remark about the Prime Minister's personal appearance".

Clarkson did also call the PM a liar. At least he implied this in a way which left very little room for alternative.

So, he's apologised for the labels Scottish and one-eyed, but idiot and liar have gotten clean off.

Good. At least free speech is still alive and well, even if freedom of opinion seems to have taken a battering.

We're kind of on dangerous ground here. Here's a man, admittedly a man with access to a larger television audience than most of the rest of us, stating his opinion about something. Now, broadcasting codes aside, he spoke freely.

In order to justify a position which ostracizes Jonathon Ross and praises Jeremy Clarkson, I must make important the distinction between someone freely stating his controversial opinion and someone openly and carelessly aggravating a person (or, even worse, being allowed the same) by dragging their privacy and their dignity irreverently into the limelight.

These are very different cases. I watched the Clarkson incident unfold with a great deal of interest.

If we are to cling to the last threads of "democracy" in this country, we must realise that in cases such as this it is our government's job to defend, using the full extent of the law of this land, the right of people — yes, even Jeremy Clarkson — to freely speak their mind.